WEBVTT - What It Means Is Up To Me 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.600 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:07.080 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.440 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:12.520 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.200 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.919 Now for those of you who are watching online, just 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.200 so you can know what I'm up against. In a minute, listen, 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:26.680 how excited these people already hear God's work today. Let's 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:31.480 see what I'm dealing with. Right for me, it's a mess. 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:43.280 Not get a loud I gotta stop screaming. I still 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:53.760 got a freak Praise the Lord. Amen. So we're continuing 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.920 this week. Be seated. That's not a suggestion, it's command. 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:04.480 Be seated. Let me look at you. See if you've 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.759 been reading your Bible or not. Some of these people 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:08.720 hadn't seen. In a minute, see if you've been drinking 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.959 or you know, to see if you've been on the 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.039 cable channels late at night or in the word of God. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.640 I gotta check y'all out it. What's the state of 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:26.679 the flock? I want to I want to go into 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.280 One person was saying on YouTube. It's not a laughing time, 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.680 don't you know what's going on in the world around me? 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.480 And I had to restrain myself not to comment back. 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.360 The joy of the Lord is my strength if I 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.480 don't find something to rejoice about, like Paul in that 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.039 prison cell. You know, Paul, this is not the time 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.760 to be rejoicing. This is the time to be repenting. Well, 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.520 repent means change your mind. That's what he's teaching us 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.800 how to do right in this season. Last week we 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:03.080 talked about take control of your mind. Take it. Somebody 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.920 say take it. And we're really looking at three questions 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.360 from Philippians, one that are so powerful that they are 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.600 pretty much running your emotions, whether you know it or not, 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.440 like how software runs your phone or whatever. I don't 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.480 know how it works, but I do know this these 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.560 three questions, and I'll give them to you again. What 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:31.639 does it matter? What shall I choose? And what does 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.960 it mean? Those are questions that your mind is always answering. 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.480 How you answer those determines whether or not you live 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.920 in a state of defeat or freedom. And that's not 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.679 my opinion. That's the teaching that Paul gives us in 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.960 Philippians I should warn you up front. I had to 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:58.960 bring two Bibles to preach the sermon today. Do not 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.040 be afraid. But I got something to say and God 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.679 gave it to me, so I'm confident about it. One 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.800 is in the New Testament from Philippians chapter one, where 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.720 we were last week. And then I also want to 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:18.120 show you something in Genesis fifty in Philippians one, and 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.000 we'll just pick up right where we left off last 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.800 week where he says, but what does it matter? Remember 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:30.040 that how that question can eliminate a lot of the 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.519 things that we pray about if we get the right priorities, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.960 and how it also can keep us from, you know, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:42.080 giving our resources to things that we'll regret later. One 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:43.600 of the things God has been doing in this season, 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.600 whether you realize it or not, as helping you redirect 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:50.720 your resources. Because when He eliminates things from your life 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.040 in a way that is that is a gift, the 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:58.080 gift of elimination. And one author said that trials tightly 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.680 focus your life. So that's been happening, and it was 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.400 happening for Paul because he's like, well, if I focus 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:11.080 on the things I'm uncertain about, I'm probably going to 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.120 get I'm going to get in so much confusion that 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.839 I will start to doubt what God is doing through me. 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:19.800 But I'm going to choose to write off the things 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.400 I can control. And remember when he said what does 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.880 it matter? He was talking about the motives of people 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.840 who were preaching about Jesus for the wrong reasons. And 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.200 that perplexed me because I thought, well, it does matter 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.719 what people's motives are when they're preaching. And Paul said, well, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.320 it doesn't matter as much. Somebody say that in the 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:45.320 Chat as much. Their motive doesn't matter as much as 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:52.359 God's mission. So while my mind is constantly fighting the 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.480 battle of what matters, this matters and that matters, it 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.520 brings me back to the realization that some things matter more. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.159 He's saying, what matters more is that in every way, 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.599 whether from false motives or true. Okay, and this is 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.440 going to be really parallel with the Genesis fifty passage, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.960 So underline that, ob so you can rip it off 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.680 in three months, whether from false motives or true, with 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.680 my full permission, I will make it better to Christ 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:26.479 is preached. The important thing is what matters more? What 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:31.719 matters most to Paul, not to us other stuff matters 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.600 more to us, no matter what we say with our lives, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.120 sometimes we demonstrate that other stuff matters more. But to Paul, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.880 it was like the Gospel, the good News about Jesus, 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.359 what he's doing his kingdom. You know all these things 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.559 that we can say. But the substance of Paul's faith 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:54.640 was that the mission the purpose of God mattered more 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.960 for him than his preference or either other people's motives, 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.600 which he could not control. So he said, I've chosen 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:07.960 to focus. I have chosen watch this to rejoice. Make 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:14.000 the choice to rejoice. All right, it rhymes it must 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:21.320 be true, yes, and I will continue to rejoice. I'm 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.440 gonna keep doing it. I did it, I am doing it, 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.200 and I will continue to do it. Somebody said I 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.080 did it, I am doing it, and I will continue 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.680 to do it. Tell the devil, I did it, I 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.800 am doing it, and I will continue to do it. 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.880 I will continue to rejoice for I know that through 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.919 your prayers and God's provision resource of the Spirit of 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:53.559 Jesus Christ, what has happened to me resistance the Spirit 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.760 of Jesus Christ resource provision, you see it, the provision 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.080 of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Resource, what has happened 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.000 to me? Prison? Sentence? Resistance? Write it down. The resource 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:10.880 is greater than the resistance. And I need you to 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.040 know that. Child of God, I need you to know that. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.000 He said, I know this. I don't know what they're 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:17.960 gonna do with me. I'm still waiting to find out. 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.880 I don't know. In fact, it was so bad for Paul. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:22.600 He wasn't like, I don't know if they were going 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.360 to keep me on furlough. He's like, I don't know 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.640 if they're going to keep me on earth. Festus handed 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:30.920 me over to Caesar's I'm not even in control of this, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:36.240 but he sounds remarkably in command of the condition of 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.800 his soul, and I want to learn how to do that, 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.520 he said Verse twenty. No, no, I can't leave this behind. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.920 We'll turn out for my deliverance. I don't want to 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:50.000 leave that out. Deliverance is a major theme in the scripture, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.560 all the way from Moses and the Exodus to Jesus 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.680 on the Cross to Paul in this prison. And yet 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.520 it's not so much for Paul about God bringing him out. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:09.520 It's about God's spirit getting in inward deliverance. So he said, 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.240 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:17.560 way be ashamed that's internal, but will have sufficient courage 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.760 that's internal, so that now, as always, Christ will be 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:31.400 exalted in my body. That's internal. External can't control internal. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:40.240 I will continue to rejoice. This is the distinction, he said, 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.800 whether by life or by death, yell all right if 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.920 I teach the Bible, because this weather or construct means 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:54.360 I'm okay either way. And so he's not talking about 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.280 I'm okay if I have to park at the front 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.360 or the back of Target's talking about I'm okay if 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.000 I go to heaven or if I stay here. I'm 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.920 not there yet. I am not there yet. I want 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.960 to stay around. But Paul's like, I'm okay either way. 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.040 Now say it by faith, I'm okay either way. This 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.400 is the spirit of Paul's faith. It wasn't manipulation. It 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:21.000 was acceptance. It was embracing what God is doing in 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:28.640 this moment, not escaping, embracing, Thank you Jesus. So I'm 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:33.000 counting on courage, not counting on circumstances. I'm counting on courage. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.080 I'm counting on Christ to me, And this was the 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:37.920 only verses that I really meant to read, but I 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.520 got all caught up there in the other ones. For 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.360 to me, somebody say to me, For to me, to 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:49.280 live is Christ and to die is Gain. If I'm 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.839 to go on living, if they don't cut my head off, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.480 if they let me have a few more years, not sure. 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.400 But if I am to go on living in the body, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.840 this will mean fruitful labor for me. So you saw 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.120 what does it matter? And now Paul is showing us 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.760 what does it mean? Wdim, what does it mean? He said, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.360 If I am to go on living, this will mean 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.680 fruitful labor for me. If I am to go on living, 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.599 this will mean And we'll focus there today. But I 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.840 got to put this with it. He said, Yet, what 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.840 shall I choose? I do not know. Now go to 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:39.640 Genesis fifty, Genesis fifty. Somebody say, what does it matter? 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:47.680 What does it mean? What shall I choose? Genesis fifty, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.080 verse nineteen. But Joseph said to them, do not fear, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.560 for am I in the place of God. As for 0:10:55.640 --> 0:11:01.719 you you meant evil against me, but God meant it. 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:08.319 You have permission to shout. You have permission to shout. 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:13.200 I mean, you have permission to shout, just as Joseph said, 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.920 as for you, you you meant evil against me, but God 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.079 meant it for good to bring it about. Yeah. There 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.120 it goes when you realize that that purpose of God 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.200 in every situation is very powerful. He said, you meant 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.800 it for evil, but God meant it for good to 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.960 bring it about. That many people should be kept alive 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.200 as they are today, So do not fear. I will 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.240 provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.320 them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.400 each he and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.319 and ten years. That's too long, Lord, I don't want 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.040 all that. How many agree that's too long, Lord, put 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.160 it in the chat. That's too long, Lord, But look 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.760 at this, and Joseph saw evil from children of the 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:06.040 third Generation. As for you, you meant it for evil, 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:13.679 but Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. I 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.200 don't know if this is a title, but this is 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.199 what I want you to get today, and I want 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:18.719 you to say it out loud one more time. I'll 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.240 stop making you repeat stuff, I promise, But look at 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.079 somebody next to you, or just type it to nobody 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.360 in particular and say, what you do is up to you. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:44.880 But what it means. You thought I was done. I 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.240 got you good start over. What you do is up 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.760 to you. Joseph looked at his brother and said, you 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.920 meant it for evil. What you do is up to you, 0:12:55.920 --> 0:13:04.560 but what it means is up to me. What it 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:09.120 means is up to me. What does it mean? It's 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.520 up to me. So, like, one of the hardest things 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.199 about being a parent is teaching your kids what words mean, 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:22.120 because they honestly think you're Google when they're little, and 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.240 then they think you're an idiot when they get bigger. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.320 But I write these things down because Levi Lusco taught 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.760 me something cool. He said, put everything that your kids 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.480 say that's kind of cute down in your phone and 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.080 then you can read it to them later and they'll 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.520 like it. And so I've been doing that for a 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.440 few years because Levi. Levi told me to. He also 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.280 told me to try sarracha and wear common projects. He's 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.760 just the ultimate salesman. But I was like, okay, Levi, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.000 I'll do it. It's really cool. I'm glad I did it. 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.040 And I found this note because I was thinking about 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.240 how kids asked the best questions, which I think is 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.800 one of the reasons that God wants us to have 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:02.480 faith like a child, not to beldildish and immature, but 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:08.120 to be childlike and to be curious about God, to 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.479 be curious about what He can do in the world. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.240 And so kids have no problem with that. So we 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.720 were watching this show and one of the characters said, 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:17.920 the only reason I remember this Abby was poored. She's 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:19.720 almost ten now. The only reason I remember it is 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:24.040 because Levi Lusco and she said. One of the characters said, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.800 with this plan, we can't fail, and Abby goes, what 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:34.600 does fail mean? So then I answered her it means 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.080 that you don't succeed. Well, then you know what she 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:47.240 asked next, right, what does succeed mean? And answering that 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.880 was really tough because I was like, well, it means 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:52.160 that you do what you set out to do. But 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:53.720 then I was like, well, not really. In God's kingdom, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:55.240 sometimes what you set out to do was the wrong thing, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:56.680 and then you end up realizing that what you set 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.160 out to do wasn't the right thing. And God was 0:14:58.200 --> 0:14:59.760 trying to, you know, kind of lead you in Toto 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:01.360 one pl but you thought you were supposed to do this, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:02.760 and then it turned out you're supposed to do that. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.560 You know, I I start having an existential crisis watching 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.560 The Simpsons with my family. I'm like, I shouldn't have 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:12.920 told you it was the Simpsons and she was four, 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:26.000 But y'all pray for me. Hello, I'm sitting there going, 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.440 you know, like I'm not saying this out loud, but 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.640 I'm like, that's so deep. Well, to succeed? Mean, what 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.160 is it profit a man to gain the whole world 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.320 and lose his soul? She's asking for a little definition. 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:43.840 You know, I'm having this midlife crisis, but it did 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.840 hit me that you know, you really can't answer the 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.320 first question what is failure? If you don't answer the 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.840 second definition? What is success? And really can make a 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:57.080 word mean anything you wanted to mean? Yes, you know, 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:04.000 short term success times is the ultimate failure. Have you 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.640 ever seen somebody that got in really good physical shape 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.720 but they did it the wrong way and then it 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.800 ended up just creating the cycle to where they just 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.640 keep losing weight and taking weight off, And it's like, well, man, 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:18.600 if you do if you do a good thing the 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.120 wrong way, that becomes its own problem. So you can 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:24.840 have a short term success in a long term failure. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.360 You have a short term failure in long term success, right, 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.360 and many of you have experienced that in your life. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.200 How many y'all had to break up that was a blessing? 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:39.520 Let me ask it like this, how many of y'all 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.600 would be living with somebody who would make you want 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.080 to move out if God would have answered your prayers 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.920 like Garth Brooks said, some of God's greatest gifts. I 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.600 saw Garth on the Billboard Awards last night. Did you 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.040 see him? And start making me feel like a failure? 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.040 Because sometimes I feel successful when I'm like comparing myself 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.040 because this is all relevan, you know, I'm comparing myself. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.680 I'm like, you know, we wrote these songs that are 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:10.000 big songs. And then Garth Brooks is Chason Whiskey and 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.600 you know drowned diamond albums. I got a platinum album 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:16.800 last year. I gave it to my mom, put it 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.800 up on her wall. Platinum album Garth has they said 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.160 on the thing, I think he had ten diamond albums. 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.320 Now I got my little pitiful platinum album. Let me 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.879 take this down. Garth's got a diamond album, Unanswered Prayers, Lord, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.800 what's my life even worth? You know? And all of that. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.640 I was listening to one thing the other day where 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.359 the guy was talking about he won a Grammy, and 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.920 then he wanted to win a Oscar, so he start 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.320 putting being in movies. Then he started wanting to win 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.960 on an Emmy, so he did a TV show and 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.200 he said the only thing left for him to achieve 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.680 that was driving him crazy was to win a Tony 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.800 for a Broadway play. So he said, that's called an egot. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.000 When you get an Emmy. Not many people do it. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.359 I don't know how many, because I'm not in it 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:18.920 for these worldly pleasures. But he said, Emmy, a Grammy, 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.160 and an Oscar. But then he said, but I don't 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:31.680 have a Tony. He said, right now, it's just ego. Now, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:38.160 how many things that the world calls success, how many 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:42.880 things that the devil uses to get you to think, 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.639 remember last week that my life doesn't matter. It's just ego. 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.920 He said, I gotta get an egot, and then I'll 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.000 start thinking about what I got. Somebody say I got 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.760 oh put it in all caps in the worldwide e 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:10.920 fam said. Somebody say I got mercy. I got grace, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.119 I God, love, joy, peace, thanxious, kindness, goodness, thankfuless, gentleness, 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.840 and self control. I got the fruit of us fear. 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.679 I got it. I got it. I didn't learn it, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:34.000 but I got it, Okay. So Paul is like, I 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:39.920 don't yet. I got loyalty and royalty and all of that. 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.439 Paul said, I got it in sight of me. I 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.040 got courage to make it no matter the outcome. I 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:51.000 got it. I got it pressing towards the mark to 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.119 take hold of the price for which Christ Jesus has 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:58.760 already taken hold of me. I already got it. And 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.400 the guy was talking about all those Grammys and Tony's 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:02.879 and he said, I don't know why I think the 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:04.920 next one is going to make me feel any better. 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.480 It didn't do what I thought it was gonna do. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:11.640 Have you ever had that before? I know, I mean 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:13.520 I don't want a Grammy or anything like that either, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:20.479 But have you ever got it? Have you ever got it? 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:28.080 And when you get it and it's empty, it's a 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.280 really weird feeling. It's almost worse than never getting it. 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.720 But Paul is showing us something here. And remember, coming 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:40.640 back to this theme, are you in control. You are control, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:45.880 in control of what success means to you, and if 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:50.679 you align that with the worldly definition of success, you 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:55.440 can expect at some point an emptiness that comes when 0:20:55.480 --> 0:21:02.679 we try to give our own definitions to God's concepts. 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.560 I found out you can really make anything mean anything 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.960 you want it to me. Even in the Bible. It's like, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.480 if we're talking to Paul and we were talking about 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:16.480 what is failure and what a success, it would be 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.000 a very confusing class because right here he's saying in 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.520 Philippians one, what's happening right now, the Gospel is succeeding 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.600 even though I'm in prison, and he uses the word 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.520 I don't know if you noticed it. He said fruitful. 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.000 This means more fruitful labor. So he says it's working 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.680 in me. It's working in me, even though the work 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.600 that he could do was limited. And sometimes I say 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.200 things like this and I don't break it down because 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:46.919 I know you're not in prison physically, you're watching this. 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.000 I know that you're not necessarily a preacher apostle of 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.520 the gospel like Paul would. I understand that. I know 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:55.840 you're not sitting there thinking maybe about oscars or Tony's 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.360 or anything like this. But I think the dynamic applies 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.080 to everybody listening to me, and I want to know, well, 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:05.280 if I'm right, is that like how Solomon said meaningless meaningless? 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:11.119 Everything is meaningless. Everything is meaningless until you give it 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:17.560 a meaning. And so where we get it backwards is 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.920 we're searching for meaning and stuff, but everything is meaningless 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.639 until you give it meaning. And I want to talk 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:31.679 about that a little bit. She said, what's failure? And 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.919 then I had to think about, well, what's success? And 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.040 then I didn't really know how to answer her. Now, 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:42.359 of course, certain things change meaning over time, and since 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.080 we're talking about what does it mean today, you know, 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.280 we can all agree that from generation to generation. It's 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.320 funny because when you're first raising your kids, you have 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:54.440 to tell them what words mean, and then when they 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.200 turn to teenagers, they have to tell you what words mean. Right, 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.719 how many got teenagers? Are you used to have them? 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:03.720 Or something like that. Well, they sometimes save you a 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:07.920 lot of trouble. Elijah is my sermon, really my sermon collaborator. 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:10.840 I don't want him to, you know, really hear this, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.720 because he'll start wanting a royalty or something like that. 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.560 But he helps me on multiple levels. And one thing 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:18.719 that he'll do sometimes is he'll say, Dad, don't say that. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:21.439 One time I was telling him all I was going 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:23.200 to preach, and I just was going on and on 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:24.960 about how we don't need to waste our life and 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:27.040 we need to make the most of our time. And 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:29.760 I said, some of y'all just want to Netflix and chill. 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:32.760 And he said, oh, whoa, whoa, Dad, this a couple 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:34.960 of years ago. I just heard somebody say it Netflix 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:36.879 and chill. I thought it meant be lazy sit around. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:44.440 He said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. That that doesn't 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:50.760 mean what you're thinking means. And I was thankful. And 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:55.680 I wonder how many times God Wow sits up there 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:01.360 looking at our lives, who wishing we could hear him 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:10.040 say that doesn't mean what you think it means. Even 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:11.640 if you just go through this one letter that Paul 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.560 wrote to the Philippian Church, which highly organized beautiful Bible study. 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:15.920 And I hope many of our e groups I heard 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:19.879 there's tens of thousands of people enjoyed it. But if 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:21.800 you'll just notice some of the things he says to 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:23.840 the Philippian Church, see this church meant a lot to 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:26.280 him because he found it in the midst of persecution. 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:28.720 And anything that you birth in the midst of great 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:33.639 pain means more to you. He called them partners in 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:37.600 the Gospel, and he loved them like that. He loved 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.560 them like that. So when he told them that every 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:43.080 need will bow and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:48.399 is Lord. I just wonder when we say Jesus's Lord, 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:52.159 if Paul hears us kind of quoting that in a 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:57.320 cultural way eight pounds six ounce Jesus, what was he 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:00.359 eight pounds and six ounces, and he's like, when I 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:03.040 say Jesus Christ is Lord. See, that was a costly 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:06.119 confession when Paul wrote it, because it was it was saying, 0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:14.119 Caesar isn't Lord. So he was rejecting the empire to 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:17.960 embrace the kingdom. When we say Jesus is Lord, for 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:20.120 a lot of us, that means I grew up Baptist, 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:27.639 but for Lord was his favorite thing to call Jesus curios. 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:30.200 He loved that title lord. It meant to him I 0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:33.439 do what he says. And for a lot of us, 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:35.200 when we call on the Lord is to get him 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:43.800 to do what we say. And That's why when Paul says, 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:49.680 whether I live or die, that's up to God. He's Lord. 0:25:51.040 --> 0:25:54.840 That's not that's not what means. It doesn't mean what 0:25:54.880 --> 0:25:57.880 you think think. It means Jesus is Lord. That means 0:25:57.880 --> 0:26:01.240 that that I trust him with what I can't control. 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:05.760 Or here's another one. I know you know this one 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:08.840 because I mentioned it earlier. Rejoice in the Lord. We 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.760 think that means seeing I asked five people to get 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:14.159 ready for this sermon. I said, what comes to your 0:26:14.200 --> 0:26:18.040